142 THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA 



in May and their runners in September." None of the 

 European varieties were successful here. Almost in- 

 variably they have proved to be tender, weak-growing, and 

 the everbearing habit is scarcely in evidence. If irrigated 

 and fertilized heavily, they throw out runners which bear 

 as soon as rooted, giving a partial fall crop, but not enough 

 to justify the trouble. In Europe, however, especially in 

 France, these varieties are thrifty and truly everbearing. 

 Henri de Vilmorin says: "They flower and bear fruit 

 continuously from May to November and produce a 

 moderate amount of runners. Their chief value is for 

 the home garden, but with extra care and management 

 they may even prove profitable as a market crop for late 

 summer and early autumn." In 1902 P. de Vilmorin 

 said of the St. Joseph and the St. Antoine, as grown in 

 France, ''\^Tienever the water supply has been sufficient 

 to keep them growing they gave all through the summer 

 and as late as October a great crop of large, well-flavored 

 fruits, fetching high prices when sent to market." ^ 



Early failures in North America. — Meanwhile, Ameri- 

 can growers were disappointed repeatedly in their search 

 for an everbearing variety adapted to conditions here. 

 Aside from failures with the Alpines and the European 

 hybrid everbearers, a number of native sorts that at first 

 seemed to hold some promise proved to be worthless. 

 One of the first of these was reported by Nicholas Long- 

 worth, in 1852.2 He said : "There is a wild everbearing 

 variety in our State (Ohio) that w^ould cross with the Scar- 

 let and Pine and is the only kind I have ever seen worthy 



1 Mem. Hort. Soc. N. Y., Vol. I (1902), p. 255. 



2 "Culture of the Strawberry," by Nicholas Longworth, in 

 "The Culture of the Grape and Wine-makiiig," by Robert Bu- 

 chanan (1852), p. 133. Also in Country Gentleman, XI (1858), 

 p. 366. 



